Berlusconi raps Europe 'big three'
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Berlusconi: Strongest attack yet on intentions of UK, France, Germany
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BERLIN, Germany (Reuters) -- Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi says the European Union faced a big mess if its three biggest countries tried to dictate to the rest.
On the eve of a summit between Germany, France and Britain, Berlusconi launched the strongest attack yet by a European leader on what he portrayed as efforts by the three to create a "directorate" for the EU.
"Europe doesn't need any directorate. It's just a big mess," said Berlusconi, whose country is one of four European members of the G7 group of leading industrial nations along with Germany, France and Britain.
"This is my opinion which is completely shared by other European countries, with the exception of the three countries involved," Berlusconi told a news conference in Rome.
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, French President Jacques Chirac and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, accompanied by ministers, are due to meet in Berlin on Wednesday to discuss ways of reviving growth in sluggish EU economies.
Despite their assurances to the contrary, concerns have been mounting among their peers that the "Big Three" are engaged in power play to prevent their influence from being diluted when the EU expands from 15 to 25 members on May 1.
"Directorate" or "directoire" -- the term for the five directors who ran France after the post-revolutionary Terror in the 1790s -- are becoming the dirty words of EU politics.
"We hope that this is not an exclusive directoire, just a meeting of the three big member states of the Union," Polish European Affairs Minister Danuta Huebner told reporters.
Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said in a newspaper interview: "Europe must grow with everyone taking part, not by creating groups that decide for everyone else... damaging the construction of Europe."
Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Manuel Durao Barroso said last week the EU should not be divided into first, second and third class members. Lisbon could not accept that two or three countries should "serve up the dish and ask the others later whether they liked it."
From the capitals of the Big Three, reassurance was offered.
The three-way approach was about "decision-shaping, rather than decision-making," a senior diplomat said on Tuesday.
It was "commonsense," the diplomat said, for the three largest countries to find shared ground on key issues as a prelude to seeking consensus in an enlarged EU when 10 mostly former communist countries join on May 1.
The main focus on Wednesday will be on the EU's "Lisbon agenda" drawn up in 2000, a long-term programme to create jobs, stimulate growth and close the gap in economic competitiveness between Europe and the United States.
While there is suspicion in some quarters of what Schroeder, Chirac and Blair may discuss, there is also recognition EU reform needs all the help it can get.
"I don't prejudge any combinations of member states who wish to meet, but I would make a very strong plea for leaders who can provide some motor force and acceleration to the European process...to do so," said European Parliament President Pat Cox.
Thomas Mayer, chief European economist at Deutsche Bank GlobalMarkets, said: "As long as the three countries don't form an exclusive club where others are shut out, there is nothing to complain about. Somebody needs to take the initiative in the EU."
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